A retired American who lived in Penang, Malaysia, and now has returned to the US shares his thoughts, views and opinions on a variety of subjects ranging from the ridiculous to the controversial. The contents are only limited by his imagination.

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Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Did Trump Release His Own Tax Returns?

Last evening on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC 2 pages of Trump's 2005 tax returns were made public. There was nothing earth shattering revealed about his taxes, as he did pay $38 million on income earned. They did however raise a few questions. First of all he paid taxes at the same rate as me and millions of other middle class tax payers! Secondly there were only two pages released. Where are the attachments and schedules? Also where did the income come from? The copy was mailed to David Cay Johnston, an investigative reporter, who also wrote a book on Donald Trump, called "The Making of Donald Trump".

Just before the Maddow show the White House released a statement trying to discredit the release by saying it proved that Trump did pay taxes and had been paying right along. Of course Trump had to follow up on Twitter attacking Maddow and MSNMC as fake news! He also said that Johnston was an unknown reporter. It's odd that he can't remember someone he has known for 30 years and was his biographer! It is interesting to note that the copy of the 1040 shows a stamp at the bottom that reads "Client Copy"! When taxes are filed by a tax attorney or agency there are 3 copies; one for the IRS, one for the lawyer and one for the client. It seems to appear that Trump may have released his own returns to deflect from the massive problems he is having with Trumpcare and his Russian connections. Why was only this one year of returns leaked? Was it cherry picked? If he indeed did nothing wrong, why is he still refusing to release the complete returns for other years?

As everything that comes from the Trump White House, this appears to be a smokescreen to hide all of the corruption and collusion with Russia. The release of these forms may have captured the news cycle for a day of two, but Trump and his cabinet's conspiracy with Russia to install a pro-Putin government, will continue to be investigated, despite Republican resistance and complicity!